Morning in an open court of beaten earth before a mud-brick town gate in Babylonia, a low stone bench where judges sit standing empty, long shadows.

Comfort My people

Isaiah 41

Who do you trust to tell you what’s coming?

29 verses≈ 6 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the ServantChapter 41
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

God’s Help to Israel

God

“Be silent before Me, O islands,

and let the peoples renew their strength.

Let them come forward and testify;

let us together draw near for judgment.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

Dawn over the flat plain east of Babylon: a great low cloud of dust on the far horizon where an unseen army marches, the sun rising behind it, a lone palm and a canal in the foreground.

Who has aroused one from the east

and called him to his feet in righteousness?

He hands nations over to him

and subdues kings before him.

He turns them to dust with his sword,

to windblown chaff with his bow.

He pursues them, going on safely,

hardly touching the path with his feet.

God

Isaiah

The islands see and fear;

the ends of the earth tremble.

They approach and come forward.

Each one helps the other

and says to his brother, “Be strong!”

Isaiah

Isaiah

The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,

and he who wields the hammer

cheers him who strikes the anvil,

saying of the welding, “It is good.”

He nails it down so it will not be toppled.

God

“But you, O Israel, My servant,

Jacob, whom I have chosen,

descendant of Abraham My friend—

I brought you from the ends of the earth

and called you from its farthest corners.

I said, ‘You are My servant.’

I have chosen and not rejected you.

God

Do not fear, for I am with you;

do not be afraid, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you; I will surely help you;

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

God

Behold, all who rage against you

will be ashamed and disgraced;

those who contend with you

will be reduced to nothing and will perish.

You will seek them but will not find them.

Those who wage war against you will come to nothing.

God

For I am the LORD your God,

who takes hold of your right hand

and tells you: Do not fear,

I will help you.

God

Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm,

O few men of Israel.

I will help you,” declares the LORD.

“Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

God

A heavy wooden threshing sledge lies tipped on its side on a rock threshing floor, the sharp stones and iron teeth set into its underside facing the viewer, sheaves and chaff around it.

Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge,

new and sharp, with many teeth.

You will thresh the mountains and crush them,

and reduce the hills to chaff.

You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away;

a gale will scatter them.

But you will rejoice in the LORD;

you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

Question

Quick question

The LORD calls Jacob a “worm” in verse 14. Read on to verse 15 before you answer.

What does the LORD say He will make His weak people into?

God

The poor and needy seek water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched with thirst.

I, the LORD, will answer them;

I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

God

A high bare ridge of pale rock where clear water wells up among the stones and spills down in a bright stream to pools in the valley below, morning sun.

I will open rivers on the barren heights,

and fountains in the middle of the valleys.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water,

and the dry land into flowing springs.

God

God

I will plant cedars in the wilderness,

acacias, myrtles, and olive trees.

I will set cypresses in the desert,

elms and boxwood together,

so that all may see and know,

may consider and understand,

that the hand of the LORD has done this

and the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

Meaningless Idols

God

“Present your case,” says the LORD.

“Submit your arguments,” says the King of Jacob.

“Let them come and tell us what will happen.

Tell the former things,

so that we may reflect on them and know the outcome.

Or announce to us what is coming.

God

Tell us the things that are to come,

so that we may know that you are gods.

Yes, do something good or evil,

that we may look on together in dismay.

Behold, you are nothing

and your work is of no value.

Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

God

Close and low in a potter’s yard: the bare feet and lower legs of a potter treading wet red clay in a shallow pit, finished jars drying behind at midday.

I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—

one from the east who calls on My name.

He will march over rulers as if they were mortar,

like a potter who treads the clay.

God

Who has declared this from the beginning,

so that we may know,

and from times past,

so that we may say: ‘He was right’?

No one announced it, no one foretold it,

no one heard your words.

God

I was the first to tell Zion:

‘Look, here they are!’

And I gave to Jerusalem

a herald of good news.

When I look, there is no one;

there is no counselor among them;

when I ask them,

they have nothing to say.

God

Dusk at a small hilltop shrine in Babylonia: its mud-brick shelf empty but for one small wooden idol fallen on its face, wind blowing dust and dry leaves across the floor.

See, they are all a delusion;

their works amount to nothing;

their images are as empty as the wind.

0:08

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, You are with me, so I will not fear. Take hold of my right hand when I am weak, and uphold me when I cannot stand. You alone know what is coming; teach me to trust Your word about tomorrow more than any other voice. Amen.

The LORD’s case against the gods

Whiteboard

The LORD alone raises up kings and tells what is coming. The idols can’t even stand without nails.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 41

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A verse to carry with you

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

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